Sacramento daily record-union., 1887-08-09
The Limits OF conrres.ions, inquiry.

as to the scope OF its authority, since it has
that which committee of Congress would
claim, and that claim has been repeatedly
pushed over the constitutional limit, and
| has sometimes been curbed By the Courts
| TIE pending inquiry goes to the condi-
ton and management OF certain property
which the Government has accepted as
| security for q loan. As we have explained
| the Central Pacific is neither creature nor
trustee of the Government. 1t is cor
| poration created by this State, and this
State could have prevented its becoming
debtor of the Government by Withholding
| legislative assent to the loan which causes
this examination into its affairs The debt
has not matured, but the Government is
| prudentlv taking precaution to examine
in advance of maturity, the condition OF
its security. Heretofore the investigation
| OF the Governments relations to its solvent
| or insolvent debtors has been undertaken
directly by Congress, through a committee
of one House or the other. In the present
case the authority has been delegated to
Commission.
1t has been said that the British Parlia-
| ment can do anything but change q woman
| into man. Sometimes the same sumptu-
| Gus range of power has been claimed for
| the American Congress, but the people
here are as watchful of entertainments by
Congress as by the Executive or any other
branch of the Government. They have
| lesrned, too, during the reconstruction
period, that a salutary principle is always
| preached in the name OF some good cause
| So, in the name of the Union, Congress at
| tempted to tumble in a common ruin the
whole circle of personal and civil rights TO
maintain which the Union was established
| and without which it would be mockery.
In those cases the Courts had to interfere.
fhrna atar,. Il
ment because they maintained the safe
guards and upheld the checks and balances
| of the Constitution.
Wise men have foreSeen that when Con-
| gress began to correct that prodigal policy
of aiding railways which was demanded
by the people a few years ago, the reaction
of public opinion would carry that BODY TO
the other extreme, and it would attempt
many unreasonable invasions of constitIi-
tional rights. These invasions, like the
incidents of reconstruction, would be dan
gerous because they would be popular. and
the people would lose sight of the remote
consequences to themselves, in the pleas-
ures of present qualification of their preiu
dices
Those who clamored in the platforms of
both parties for gifts and grants and loans
to railroads were unpleasantly affected
when the men to whom these things were
given became rich, but it was as illogical rs
to feed horse generously and then whip
him for getting fat.
Railroads are built for the profits of con-
| struction, and if a private individual loan
money for such construction, he has no
more and no less rights than the Govern
ment to follow the increment of his loan
| or the profits it produced, through all the
channels of private investment or partner
ship enterprises. Under pretense of exam
lining the condition of his security the cred
itor in neither case can claim the right of
unreasonable search of private papers and
accounts. He may suspect that his debtor
| threw the borrowed money to the birds. or
| used 1t to get interest in enterprises in
which many others are concerned, but in
| chasing this suspicion he has no right to
make public exhibition of the private bus
mess affairs of those others.
Congress has attempted this very thing
before. When Jay Cooke failed he became
an insolvent debtor of the Government.
committee of the House of Representatives
entered upon an investigation OF his affairs.
1t was charged that he was interested in an
extensive real estate pool in Washington
City. The manager of the pool was sum-
moned before the House and ordered to
produce Its books, papers and accounts.
that Congress might ascertain the extent of
Cookies interest, if any. He refused. The
House held him in contempt, and confined
hlm for forty-tiye days in the common ieil
OF the District of Columbia At the ex
piration of his sentence, he brought suit
against John g. Thompson, Sergeant.at
Arms OF the House, and finally recovered
S25, 600 damages, which the United States
had to pay
The Supreme Court of the United States
held that the real estate pool could he
reached by the Government only throuoh
the Courts if it had been guilty of anv
crime or offense, and that there existed in
Congress no power, on the allegation that
DEBTOR OF the Government was interested
IN business partnership, TO investigate
the affairs of that Partnership and conse-
quently no power to compel a witness to
testify on the subject.
10 one equipped for the exercise of iudr-
ment concerning such legal proposition. its
statement Is sufficient. No matter how de-
sirable the object sought, the means were
such as involved the overthrow of rights
common to all men, and necessary for the
preservation of liberty.
There used to be many short cuts to.the
securing of evidence. In criminal proceed
ings in capital olfenses, the man on trial
used to be put to the torture to compel his
testimony against himself The rack and
thumbscrew, and that borrid boot which
crushed the great joints of the knee, were
parts of the judicial process When the
wretch was guilty, and such means ex-
torted the technical proof to satisfy the
law, the people approved it. But by and
by innocent men were the victims OF cir
cumstances, or were enmeshed in the ap-
pearance of crime by the malice of their
enemies, and under the torture which
wrung the truth out of the guilty, the
fortitude of the innocent gave way and thew
confessed crimes they had not committed
and were broken on the wheel, torn asun
der by horses or burned at the stake.
Then public opinion revolted, and these
means of convicting the guilty were for
hidden because they destroyed also the
innocent. To this we owe the modern
mercy OF the law which holds man harm
less in refusing to testify against himself.
and yet how few there are who appreciate
that the law is not for the protection of the
guilty, but the safety of the guiltless The
protection of citizens papers against un-
reasonable search is 60 olstitutional, and
when Congress attempted its violation in
the Jay Cooke case, the Courts came to the
rescue and punished its invasion. The
right of such protection grew out of causes
similar to the right of a man to refuse tes-
tlmony against himself, and the two are so
necessary to liberty that their violation can
not be permitted upon any pretext, no mat
ter how popular it may be.
The Commission examines the question
of rebates. If it holds that rebate TO
shipper is the diversion of income upon
which the Government is entitled to per-
centage, under the Thurman Act asst,m-
ing the power which Congress claimed in
the Cooke case, it could trace the rebates to
firm of merchants, and then, following
each member thereof into his business con-
nections outside the firm and into other
partnership investments, could compel
disclosure of their private business affairs.
Any one sees that such inquisiticn is in
tolerable, and that to attempt it is to 60 be-
yond the functions of the legislative branch
OF the Government and attempt the exer-
else of authority which belongs to the
Courts, and by means which they have
abandoned
1t is necessary that these things should
be said, IN order that in the current
amusement of worrying railroads the peo-
pie shall remember their own rights These
rights germinated anciently, and have had
slow and snmetimes difficrllt nrouth hr,t